Rep. Rick Berg is very seriously considering a run for Senate in North Dakota and is even likely to make the race, according to sources close to the freshman Congressman.
According to the GOP sources, the Republican had no plans to seek higher office until Sen. Kent Conrad’s (D) decision to retire and subsequent encouragement from supporters in the state forced Berg to re-evaluate his options. …
Some of Berg’s former colleagues in the state Legislature are circulating and signing a letter encouraging him to run. The letter is also signed by state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who was a potential Senate candidate, and other statewide officials.
Berg was just elected to the House last November, but he’d instantly be the front-runner if he got into the race. This news might also help explain why Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk’s fundraising was so abysmal: If powerful Republicans have been working to get Berg in the race, then it makes sense that they’d snub Kalk, even though he was the only person who’d expressed real interest in the race so far.
As Nathan notes, though the state does officially hold primaries, the GOP nomination is really decided, Minnesota-style, at a party convention, where Berg would have the inside track. (He beat former GOP state chair Kevin Cramer at last year’s convention.) So it’s hard to see Kalk (or anyone else) sticking it out if Berg gets in. And Dems still don’t have a candidate. This is going to be a very tough race for us if Berg makes the leap, but of course it will open up his at-large House seat at the same time.
Resisting the urge to fight the last battle, I think there’s every reason to believe that Kent Conrad at least has an even shot at keeping his seat against Berg.
I had assumed it was because he had a tough re-election fight. Then I had hoped maybe the Dems had somebody in mind that could benefit from a Presidential year or something. Dems roll over completely in ND, with Dorgan and Conrad retiring rather than fighting it out.
I did write about my Phil Jackson theory recently here.
There’s no indication Bayh was worried about losing.
All signs pointed to his simply being done being a Senator, a “been there, done that” feeling, combined with frustration about the Senate’s polarization and partisanship. Of course, his complaints about the Senate were b.s., as a Senator he was part of the problem, if he thought there was one. But that’s beside the point, which is what he perceived, not whether his perspective was right.
Regarding his chances of reelection, his job approvals were solid, he was crushing all potential rivals in all polling, and he had massive Harry Reid-ish amounts of campaign dollars to spend. He wasn’t worried about winning. He just didn’t want to be a Senator for another 6 years.
Also, in hindsight, based on his recent career choices, one can surmise he wanted to get rich. Another 6 years in the Senate wasn’t going to do that.
then we have a good shot at winning back the House seat.
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This is one of the states where Democrats need to build up a viable statewide bench and a legitimate candidate who can make a decent showing will go a long way toward accomplishing that.
We’ll never know for sure if Bayh would have had a very tough race or not. Remember that Russ Feingold, in deep blue Wisconsin, looked pretty safe up until the last few months too. And we saw how that ended up.
Indiana is a deep red state; Bayh (and his father) are probably the only two Democrats who have had consistent statewide success there in recent decades. Just because Evan Bayh led other opponents convincingly when he dropped out in February doesn’t mean that wouldn’t have changed by the time November 2 arrived.
the real reason Bayh retired had something to do with health issues with one of his sons. It was entirely personal. He just didn’t talk about it until after he was out of office.
to run. Badly. In any case, while I’m not trying to start another Tester thread, I do have to say I’m not all that upset to see Conrad retire. Unlike Dorgan, or even Johnston, (his other Democratic Dakota colleagues), Conrad was one of the most vocal opponents of most of the progressive agenda, and he did so in a way that came off very bad, (the only one to come worse than he did was Ben Nelson). He wasn’t a party player at all.
Or at least…not nightmare ticket.
Pomeroy for his old house Seat. Heidi Heitkamp for Senate.
Maybe switched would work too.
Jasper Schneider is very young (31), which is great in some ways; if he won and could hold his seat, he could become a Senate institution, plus he would inject some young blood into the Democratic caucus.
I hear Heidi Heitkamp mentioned a lot here, but she’s approaching 60 and she hasn’t held political office for over 10 years. I dunno.
Realistically, we’re probably not gonna hold this seat, but I’d like to see us try.
I hate more than political opportunism, which is why I so strongly oppose the nominations of Berg in ND, Mandel in OH, and anyone else who wants to run not half-way(or in Mandel’s case, not quarter-way) through their first term. What is this country coming to?
I think this week is “Big Kids beat up Little Kids” week.
Wagner in for MO-2 even though it isn’t even open yet, basically slapping down Diehl, Akin is “outed” for MO-Sen slapping down Steelman & Martin (though Martin is so dumb he want to jump out of the flying pan and into the fire).
Now Kalk makes his big announcement and Berg (who I really wish was Ryan Renolds character from 2 guys & a girl, now that is a candidate I can get behind!) immediately metaphorically walks up behind him with a bat and bashes his head in the Bobby Deniro as Scarface in the Untouchables.
Brutal! We really need to do something about political bullying…
I was writing this seat off as Likely R even before Berg got in. And opening up ND-AL gives us one more target in taking back the House. I didn’t see Berg losing, but as an open seat it might be competitive, assuming we can find one of the 3 remaining ND Dems to run for it. (Or Pomeroy, of course, but he seems to have been fairly spooked by his loss last year and only seems interested in a job where he isn’t constantly running, i.e. Governor.)